Fabrics that are used as the strength member in vinyl coated and laminated backlit sign applications are in wide use throughout the world. A number of construction methods are used to produce such fabrics, which generally relate to the type of end use requirements for the fabrics. Conventional backlit sign fabrics are typically constructed of 18 warp ends, 12 weft yarns, and 12 stitches or courses per inch of fabric. This results in one stitch for each weft yam.
More recently, lower priced production methods and materials have resulted in backlit sign fabrics with end uses that are less visually demanding. In fact, current backlit sign fabrics are formed with a stitch construction that allows excessive movement of the warp and weft yarns in the fabric. Such movement creates visible distortion in the fabric geometry as well as instability in the fabric. Instability in the substrate can lead to less sharply defined images in the backlit sign. As a further result, these backlit sign fabrics have major visual defects such as pick pairing and pick marks. Snags in the backlit sign fabrics and excessive movement of the warp and weft yarns in such fabrics are defects that are unacceptable in those applications where the backlit sign fabric is in close proximity to the viewer.
With the shortcomings of the current backlit sign fabrics, there exists a need for a fabric having exceptional fabric geometry to meet the visual standards for quality backlit sign fabric applications, strength as well as stability.